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29 Mar 2022 // 2 minute read
Text by Cruise & Harbour News | Photos by Rui Minas
Astoria Set For The Auction Block Once More
Widely considered the world's oldest passenger ship, the Astoria is beeing set for auction once again, this time around in the United Kingdom, by CW Kellock & Co Ltd.
The ship was reportedly picked up in 2021 by a group of american investors, who also own Funchal, which inclusively announced that Astoria would be returned to cruising, mainly on regular routes from Lisbon to Madeira. But the ship remained laid-up at Rotterdam, and although work did start on the Funchal, the Astoria was never moved from the netherlandese port.
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Deadline to submit the offers hasn't been mentioned yet, but interested parties are invited to chime in, with an inspection beeing possible by arrangement. Offers are invited on an "as is, where is" basis. Under exclusive instruction from the current owners, CW Kellock & Co Ltd, are exclusively responsible for the sale of Astoria, as could be read on a release from the famous brokers. No starting price has been set as of now, but offers are invited.
Launched in 1946 as the Stockholm, the now Astoria has went by a number of different names, including Volkerfreundschaft, Italia Prima, Athena or Azores. It was extensively rebuilt in the 90s, with only the hull beeing kept from her original days. She is famous for the incident that sunk the Andrea Doria, but also for the classic experience she offered. Her final cruising days so far, were with defunct Cruise & Maritime Voyages, on a charter from then portuguese owners Montepio Bank, on a short stint in mexican waters. In 2020, the Astoria was laid-up in Tilbury and after the bankrupcy of CMV, she was supposed to be moved to Portugal, and was towed out of Tilbury with that intent, but bad weather in the Biscay ended up diverting the ship to Rotterdam, where she remains until today, although reportedly Montepio sold her to american interests in the meanwhile.
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